On Fridays and Saturdays for the festival's run, you can eat a Shakespearean-inspired menu with 25 of your closest friends or meet some new people.

"We developed these tables specifically for this purpose and decided we could serve 40 guests a really lavish, elegant meal outside before the show," director of marketing and development Maggie Eichwald tells us. "They [the festival] approached us and we were more than happy to participate and we hit the ground running. We tried to develop a menu that is pleasing to everybody -- that isn't so overly done and heavy for being outside in May and June and St. Louis."

The menu, which is served alongside family-style sides on heaving platters practically overflowing with food, includes a tomato trio, farro and arugula salad, Cornish game hen, grilled vegetables, grilled local sausages and a strawberry trifle.

Smoked yellow tomato gazpacho. | Bixby's

"We would just love for people to come out and give the dining experience a try," Eichwald says.

Tickets are $50 each; you can reserve your seats in multiples of two here. You can also reserve the entire table, which seats 40 -- contact Andrea Fuhr at afuhr@sfstl.com. Shakespeare in the Park runs every night except Tuesdays until June 15.